making 38special shotshells

dudley2112

dudley2112

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i read in an article about someone making 30 special shotshells using 3.6 grains of bullseye then a 357 gas check filling the case with shot adding another gas check and crimping it. I was wondering about doing something similar would it be safe to use 3.2-3.4 grains of Tightgroup a card wad some 71/2 shot another card wad and a heavy roll crimp to make shot shells? this if for a H&R handi rifle in .357 btw
 
CCI used to make capsules for reloading 38 and 44 with shot. I tried them about 30 years ago and they were useless.
 
Never tried .38 spl but for .44 Mag you take a .303 Brit case and cut down to about 1/4" shorter than your cylinder length. Fill it with some Unique and put a cardboard cutout on top of the powder. Then fill the remainder of the case with 8 or smaller pellets and another cardboard on top and use white glue to seal it off.

The .303 Brit will work fine on the newer .44 mags that do not have a recessed cylinder, on the older ones you will have to file the rim a bit to get it to fit.

From 7-10 yards it will fill an ice cream pail lid with shot and are very effective on small rodents/ snakes.

Once you have shot the .303 it will be somewhat fire formed and easier to load the next time and not so tapered as before. Just back the .44 mag dies out a bit and use them to reload the primer.

Great fun and very deadly on snakes. Used to use them all the time in Nevada and Utah where I lived as a kid.
 
Shot out of any rifled barrel flies in a spiral, sending the shot who knows where and with big holes in the pattern.
"...take a .303 Brit case..." How did any of us ever survive our childhood doing daft stuff like that? A .303 case is bigger than a .44 case at the rim by 3 thou and will not fit in the cylinders.
 
here's some pics of .38 and .44 shotshell kits from SPEER.
also,some plastic practice .38 rounds


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sunray said:
Shot out of any rifled barrel flies in a spiral, sending the shot who knows where and with big holes in the pattern.
"...take a .303 Brit case..." How did any of us ever survive our childhood doing daft stuff like that? A .303 case is bigger than a .44 case at the rim by 3 thou and will not fit in the cylinders.
Click to expand...

If you bothered to read the post I said it works fine on none recessed cylinders and on recessed ones it needs to be filed a bit to fit. If you would like I can take a picture of the loaded cylinder and the resulting pattern on the paper.

Guess you should also let Glen E. Fryxell know of your vast findings and also let American Handloader and Ken Waters who first thought of the idea and published it in the 70's know that he is "DAFT".

Wouldn't want any miss information to get out that two of the greatest handloaders of all time are full of crap.

Oh almost forgot about Mike Venturino's write up on Gunblast.com.

Of course we should fire off a memo to Taurus and tell them about your findings with there Judge revolver. Guess you would have to be DAFT to buy one since there is no way in hell it will work. Guess some of there engineers must have survived the ordeal.

Using a .410 wad cup cut to size works best.
 
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I have found in my 45/70 that if you cut a piece of really thin cardboard, like .22/12 gauge ammo box material and put it around the shot in a cylinder so it touches the barrel and you stick the shot together with wax inside this cardboard piece, it rings a little less and goes farther in a slightly more normal pattern... I also think that higher velocity isn't your friend.. The faster it goes, the crappier the pattern. I haven't followed perfect empirical method, but it's pointing that way.

To make the story shorter, grouse past 10-15 feet usually take off like you lit their ass on fire and I bought a round ball mold instead to use with ~5-10gr of Unique/trail boss/red dot/etc.
I think it will work better for what I want it for. Close and quieter chicken getter.. Sometimes you see a blue that you just... really want to eat later.

Ryan
 
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